|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- OSOAWEEK--ISSUE 232--1/5/99 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 18  ||  -------> (Cup OWis232, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ------------------- OSOAWEEK Ezine of Obliviana Issue 232, 1/5/99 by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana ----------- ------------------- LORD OF OBLIVIANA ----------- 1/17/99 now. This issue is 12 days late. I wanted to wait till I had something great to say, to start off Obliviana's 1999. I'm getting close to a big breakthrough in Obliviana, but I'm not there yet. Cuffiour Pathways is done. I released it early in the morning on New Year's Day. Later that day, I drove my Jeep over 150 miles to get to 43,681 miles on its odometer. One week later, on 1/8/99, I had a vision. Nine days later, I am close to making that vision a reality. 1999, and Obliviana is nowhere, man. Yet I still have hope, and desire, and challenge. I believe that Obliviana will finally arrive in 1999. Hopefully I'll have more to tell you next issue. Get all Obliviana. ------------------- LUCKY STORM ----------- Lucky Storm 232: 60 (Flip 5, Dire 3, Storm Pelter "Furnace", Voodholo Stormpost 21) Previously: 209: 27, 210: 126, 211: 20, 212: 140, 213: 170, 214: 175, 215: 177, 216: 83, 217: 111, 218: 77, 219: 119, 220: 100, 221: 128, 222:198, 223: 189, 224: 17, 225: 150, 226: 44, 227: 54, 228: 31, 229: 137, 230: 23, 231: 114 Note: The Lucky Storm is drawn randomly, using a deck of 30 cards (called a "Storm Codex"), one for each Flip and Dire. ------------------- SONG OF THE WEEK ----------- Zelda 64, "Zora's Domain" (from the videogame "Zelda 64: The Ocarina of Time") ------------------- CARNE'S MOISTURE DETECTION FRIEND Episode Twenty-Four ----------- CARNE: My Moisture Detection Friend is trying to create online entertainment, but web surfer's attention spans are very short, and those folks are very fickle. Faced with information overloads, minds frazzle and pop, and you website could easily be blown out in one of those pops, in each person's mind. PACER: Yeah, a lot of stuff on the web sucks. And even the stuff that's good sucks at some level. And usually on many levels. The traditional network and publishing idea, with very strict editors and decisionmakers filtering content... that was a good idea. CARNE: I agree. When there were only three or four channels, folks could talk about the shows the next day at work. But with hundreds of millions of websites, usually no two people have seen the same thing. But then there's the promise of bringing together exactly those people who went to that website, but also online, via chat and message boards and email and the like. PACER: That's the problem. It's the casualness that's cool. The people in the place you work, you're just thrown in with them. There's a reluctance on your part, but that makes it cool. Just like TV. You flip around, and you're like, this all sucks, but then you catch something and start watching it, and whatever. It's not like you sought it out. When you have no expectations, it's a lot easier to have a good time. CARNE: I quite agree. That is why I told my Moisture Detection Feriend that he has to come up with something so good that it transcends all these barriers. Of course, every website creator is trying to do the same. Commercial sites, at least. And they are all failing, to some exent. You're right. People fare the best without expectations. PACER: And the moment you check something out, it's no longer new. It's old. That's a big thing. And also, what it means to be cool. People are like apes. They look around and do what other people do. You can't say that's totally a bad thing, cuz without that psychological dynamic, it'd be a pretty fucked-up world. We need commonality. But it needs to be balanced with individualism. And these days. everything's out of whack. CARNE: Yes, I agree. And the Internet is taking all the mystery out of the world. It makes you think the world is full of perverts, obsessors, idiots, and victimizers. Sports, weather, politics, TV, music, movies... there's gotta be more to life. PACER: Hey, what about that thing we're gonna do, that big dark ride thing? We could have a website, y'know, like virtual and 3-D, but also with live cams and all that, and people in the vehicles can talk to the people online and stuff like that? That'd be cool. CARNE: I know, but this thing we want to build is going to cost, I don't know, hundreds of millions, maybe even over a billion dollars. Where are we gonna find that kind of money? PACER: Dude, you may have your Moisture Detection Friend, but I have a cool friend too. A Chronoscope Friend. He's developing a chronoscope--a device which can look back in time. We could use it to find buried treasure or something. Or make porno movies of historical figures. Or solve crimes. I don't know. CARNE: I daresat that a true chronoscope would certainly dwarf our dark ride idea, by many orders of magnitude. If your friend does indeed invent such a device, and is awarded a patent, he'll be far richer than even Bill Gates, if he's not instantly murdered by the government the moment they catch wind of it. PACER: Yeah. Like that guy who invented a car that runs on water. I think they killed him. Or just like gave him millions of dollars to just forget he ever though of it. CARNE: But, you know, in the case of a chronoscope, I think that most people would prefer that such a device not exist. It would mean a complete and utter lack of privacy. Everything that anyone ever did would be open to potential viewing by anyone with the device. And it would destroy the mystique of history. And that would suck. ------------------- INFORMATION ----------- Obliviana Super Occult Amusement is at "www.obliviana.com" Send all E-mail to "obliviana@aol.com" OsoaWeek is copyright 1998 Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. It may be copied for personal use only. No part of OsoaWeek may be published, either digitally or physically, without permission. The Obliviana Mailing List is currently holding steady at 23 members. ------------------- END ----------- -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----